Movie Archive – Software Project – Now Available

[dinoroger]

Hello ‘Missing Remote’ community.  New to the forums but long time HTPCer (if that’s a word).  Hope to be sticking around for some good discussions.
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With the current hard drive prices and the market getting lower and lower I decided to start a new movie playback application.  Basically it will launch a movie stored on a hard drive for my HTPC.  At an average of 3GB per movie I can store around 333 movies per 1 TB of hard drive space.  Hard drive prices are around .19 cents per 1 GB so this would come to around .60 cents per movie to store.  This is for today’s prices, tomorrows may be even cheaper.  Although it still would have some cost to accomplish this, it is nowhere near as expensive as a few years ago.  I am also developing a USB controlled switched surge protector so my application can turn a specific external drive on or off.  This way only the hard drive bank with the movie being played is powered up.  This should take all fear of running up my electricity bill with 10 external hard drives.
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I am coming to these forums today to get your ideas and suggestions into this project.  I have a mock up of the software working and am putting the final touches on it in the next couple of months.
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[b]Current Features:[/b]
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[*]Using TheaterTek as the movie software player.
[*]Can sort over 2 billion movies (long variable limit).  🙂
[*]Each movie can be assigned to one or more genres for easy genre selection.
[*]Specified movie ratings can be pass code protected.
[*]Purdy graphics, sound effects and thingies (Sorry for the technical terms).
[*]Currenly only runs at 1024×768.
[*]Easy setup program to add/edit movies.
[*]Graphics extras, sounds, ratings display can all be disabled or enabled.
[*]Title font and color can be changed.
[*]All key mappings can be changed for full remote control capability.
[*]Virtual keyboard for movie searches.
[*]Display movie trailer.
[*]Add/Remove movie to favorites genre on the fly.
[*]COMING SOON – Display movie information.[/list:u]
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[b]Questions:[/b]
Q: What resolution do you run your HTPC at?
Q: Does this type of application have a market?
Q: What other features that would keep the application simple but still improve it?
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[align=center][b]Below are some screen shots (Click for larger image):[/b]
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[center]Shows basic layout with purdy reflections                              Shows zoom of movie box[/align]
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[url=http://www.flicksilver.com/MADemo/Demo_Large1.jpg][img width=300 height=225]http://www.flicksilver.com/MADemo/Demo_Small1.jpg[/img][/url]   [url=http://www.flicksilver.com/MADemo/Demo_Large2.jpg][img width=300 height=225]http://www.flicksilver.com/MADemo/Demo_Small2.jpg[/img][/url]
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[align=center]Shows pass code protected movie                              Shows genre selection[/align]
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[url=http://www.flicksilver.com/MADemo/Demo_Large3.jpg][img width=300 height=225]http://www.flicksilver.com/MADemo/Demo_Small3.jpg[/img][/url]   [url=http://www.flicksilver.com/MADemo/Demo_Large4.jpg][img width=300 height=225]http://www.flicksilver.com/MADemo/Demo_Small4.jpg[/img][/url]
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[align=center]Shows movie search                                   Shows movie trailer[/align]
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[url=http://www.flicksilver.com/MADemo/Demo_Large5.jpg][img width=300 height=225]http://www.flicksilver.com/MADemo/Demo_Small5.jpg[/img][/url]   [url=http://www.flicksilver.com/MADemo/Demo_Large6.jpg][img width=300 height=225]http://www.flicksilver.com/MADemo/Demo_Small6.jpg[/img][/url]
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The project is currently a pet project for me.  I was tired of trying to make software work for my specifications, so I decided to take it upon myself to write my own and have been programming for about 15 years now.  Depending on the type of feedback this project may become open source or have other more marketable paths.  I am not going to make any promises or try to dig deeper into that subject matter at this time.  I like to handle things as they come along and want to keep the project fun instead of a job (I got enough of that crap at work).
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[color=red][b]Disclaimer:[/b] This project is not for pirating movies but playing backed up movies that I own from my hard drives.  I own close to 1000 DVDs and I am lazy and also don’t like scratches ruining my movie experience.[/color]

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